Industrial automation generally refers to the use of control systems to increase the productivity and/or quality of an industrial process. An “industrial process” generally refers to any process that facilitates the production of goods or the delivery of services. A “control system” generally refers to a device or set of devices that manage, command, direct, or regulate the behavior of other devices utilized within an industrial process.
An industrial process often requires communication and functional cooperation between different devices. When users purchase the different devices utilized in the industrial process from different vendors, there is often limited interoperability and consistency between devices, making communication and functional cooperation difficult. Often the control system needs to utilize a complex program for integration of the different devices to facilitate the communication and functional cooperation between the different devices.
Objects, such as modular objects, can be used to facilitate the integration of the different devices, providing a standard programming tool that can interface between the different devices. The use of objects can increase interoperability and consistency between the different devices. However, object design tools are generally static, employing a top-down approach to object design.
The above-described background is merely intended to provide an overview of contextual information regarding object design, and is not intended to be exhaustive. Additional context may become apparent upon review of one or more of the various non-limiting embodiments of the following detailed description.